Disclaimer: I do not own digimon.

Next update. Finally, some action is starting to gear up. These next couple of chapter should be pretty fun to write, especially compared to these past two boring chapters. Thanks for all of the reviews; I was surprised by how positive they all were and I really appreciate them and the fact that there are still people reading this story! It makes me definitely want to finish it. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter, cause I sure as heck don't, and I promise the next couple of chapters will be better. Review and stuff!

Chapter 6:

An entire day had passed and all she had done was lay around at home doing nothing except thinking. Right now she was laying on the couch in front of the television where the news was on, but she wasn't paying much attention to the screen. Her mind was in a completely different place.

"Kari, what are you watching dear?"

She didn't even realize her mother was talking to her. All she could think about right now was the Digital World and the other digidestineds.

"Just the news mom."

The Digital World. What exactly was going on in there. Was there really some new evil hanging around and leading these rogue digimon attacks, or were they just freaking out over nothing? And if there was this new evil that TK mentioned, then would Gatomon be ok? Should they have sent the digimon back like her brother had thought they should?

"Kari, you've been lying there all day. You remind me of Tai."

Tai. He had been acting weird lately. Irritable. He had been pretty rude to Sora, his girlfriend, at the meeting as well as Matt, his best friend. But then again, Sora had seemed pretty uncomfortable being around Tai yesterday. And Matt seemed pretty mad at Tai too.

"Are you going to do anything today? Maybe you can invite Davis over and…"

Davis. That made her smile a little bit. But then again her boyfriend had been very clingy lately. Not that it bothered her, she loved her boyfriend. However, that didn't mean Davis had to act as if someone was going to steal her away because she wasn't going to be running to anyone else.

"… or even TK? You guys used to hang out all the time, and I haven't seen him in a while."

TK. Now that was a crazy subject. TK was back; she had never thought she could say it, but he was, and he had been back for three years now. All the times she had wished for TK to be back were finally fulfilled, but it wasn't the same. It wasn't that TK didn't seem like the old TK because he did. The little, happy, hopeful boy could still be seen in TK at times, but there was something keeping her from seeing the TK here now the same way she had seen him when they were little.

"... maybe Yolei? Kari, are you even listening to me?"

Yolei! She was perfect. Whenever she suspected that something was wrong with one of her friends she always would tell advise them to talk about their feelings to someone. Well, right now she had a lot on her mind and needed to talk to someone about it. Yolei was always there for her whenever she needed someone to talk to, and it seemed like now was another time.

"Mom, do we have ice cream?" she asked as she sat up.

That seemed to catch her off guard as she tilted her head in confusion.

"I think we do. Why do you…?"

She sighed as she stood up and ran to the freezer. She opened the door and smiled in success as she looked at a half gallon of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. Just what she needed.

"Mom, I'm inviting Yolei over," she declared as she turned to her mom smiling.

Her mother shook her head and face-palmed. "You are an impossible child."

Carbohydrates (saccharides). They store energy.

Lipids. Those were the fats and oils of the body.

Amino acids. Oh, something about toys. Which toy though… building blocks! They were the building blocks of… oh… crap.

He flipped the notecard over and saw the answer he was searching for in his brain. Proteins. Amino acids were the building blocks of proteins! Seriously, he had learned that in his first year of med school! How stupid could he be. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

He hadn't realized he had been hitting himself in the head while yelling out those last three words. Gomamon had woken up, startled, and asked worriedly, "Joe? Joe! Why are you hitting yourself?"

He looked over at his partner and smiled. "Gomamon. You're awake!"

He got up from his desk and took a seat on his bed next to his partner. He had been so worried that MagnaAngemon's antidote wasn't enough to heal Gomamon or that it was too late, but here Gomamon was. He petted his partner's head asking, "How are you feeling?"

Gomamon yawned before answering, "A little tired, but other than that pretty awesome."

His partner hesitated before asking, "How long was I out?"

"Just a couple of days," he answered.

"Days?!" Gomamon shouted. "What did I miss?! Is everyone all…?!"

"Gomamon! Don't worry bud. Everyone's fine, and, trust me, you didn't miss anything important."

"What's 'anything important?'"

He then told his partner everything that had happened while he was unconscious. He told them how they had almost been destroyed by SkullSkorpiomon, how he had found the puncture wound on him but didn't find out what was wrong until the next day, how they had a digimon meeting and argued the entire time, how MagnaAngemon had been able to heal him, and then how he brought him back to the apartment to rest while he studied for an exam he had later this week.

Gomamon whistled. "You call that not important? You need to work on your definition of important."

He shrugged. "Well I also need to work on knowing the definitions to a lot of medical vocabulary."

"Seriously Joe! After all that happened you are going to worry about studying? You really are a nerd!"

"Hey! I just want to make sure I don't fail all of my classes and end up having to run my own noodle cart business like Davis plans to! Would you want to be partners with a noodle cart guy or a doctor who saves lives every day!"

"Woah, Joe. I was just giving you a hard time! Calm down!"

He sighed. All this studying he had been doing had really started to drain him. He didn't get as much sleep last night as he should have, and his head was starting to ache.

"I'm sorry Gomamon," he said as he rested his head on his hands.

Gomamon put a paw on his shoulder saying, "It's ok Joe. You should get back to studying for that important test."

For a second he thought about doing just that, but then he had a better idea. It was something that he hadn't done in a long while. He turned off his desk lamp and put all of his notes and books away. He turned and looked to see Gomamon looking at him with his head tilted in confusion.

"I'm done studying," he declared. It was hard for him to say, but once he said it, it was if a tremendous weight had been lifted off of his shoulders.

"But Joe, what about that…?" his partner started, but he cut him off.

"You know what? Screw that test. In fact, screw medical school! It all sucks!"

Gomamon just looked at him with his mouth open, "Who are you and what have you done with Joe?"

"That Joe's not here anymore; the much cooler and more awesome Joe is here instead. Come on, what do you want to do today Gomamon?"

"Umm… I… I don't know. Go to the beach?"

"Then let's go to the beach!"

He walked around his room and started gathering his swimming trunks, a couple of towels, and a shirt to change into. All the while, Gomamon just watched him with a strange look on his face.

"Why are you doing this Joe?" Gomamon asked.

He stopped what he was doing and moved to sit down next to his partner. He looked Gomamon straight in the eyes and said, "Gomamon, I almost lost you today. I was so scared that you were going to go away. I couldn't stand the thought of losing you, and since you're still around, I plan on making the best of every moment I get to be with you. I'm doing this because I love you Gomamon and I'm so glad you are better."

"Oh, Joe…" Gomamon started, but for once his partner was speechless. He reached out gave his partner a tight hug. As much as he valued med school and becoming a doctor, it was nowhere close in importance to companionship, and, even more than that, love.

After a while, Gomamon pushed away and leapt towards the door. With a big smile on his face he said, "What are you waiting for? Let's go to the beach!"

Woah, she hadn't been this low in ages. Here she was, sitting in her own room back at home lying on her bed face down with her head stuffed into her pillow balling her eyes out. And why was she like this? Boys. Boys are dumb. There's no other way to put it. Tai, Matt, even the other digidestined boys, they all were dumb. Yeah, there was more to it than boys, and were there some things that she wished she wouldn't have said or done? Of course, but it was a lot easier to blame it on boys.

"Sora?" her partner asked her, "Sora, why are you feeling this way?"

"It's… all Tai and… Matt's fault," she told Biyomon between snivels.

Biyomon wouldn't take that as a fitting answer, though. "Come on Sora, I know you too well to know that there's more to it than that. Please just talk to me."

Biyomon saying that just made her cry more as the real issue came to the forefront of her mind. She had slept with Tai! What in the world was she thinking? They had only been dating for a couple of months now and now things were starting to get real serious. But why was that a bad thing? Did she not want her relationship with Tai to be serious? Didn't she love Tai? She thought she did, but… oh, she was the worst girlfriend ever.

And then Matt. She had just wanted to help him, maybe even talk about TK and how he was dealing with his younger brother acting so strange lately. You know, try to be a good friend and help Matt get through this rough time. But he had just gone off at her. Not only did he make her feel even worse for sleeping with Tai, but she also couldn't help but think that Matt was struggling a lot more than what he told other people. What kind of friend was she if she didn't even know that her friend was going through a rough time? Maybe she's not that good of a friend after all.

She didn't even hear her partner mutter something or notice Biyomon leave. She just kept crying… and crying… and crying. She probably could wring out her pillow with all the tears it had soaked up. Her crying did stop, though, when something put its hand on her all of a sudden causing her to quickly turn around to her front side to see who it was exactly that had snuck into her room.

Her eyes widened in shock as she saw someone she wasn't expecting to see standing next to her bed smiling at her.

"Hey Sora!" Mimi cheerfully called out.

Sora quickly wiped the tears from her eyes and sat up. "Mimi? What are you doing here?"

"Why, Biyomon brought me here of course," Mimi said matter-of-factly.

"I sure did," Biyomon said happily.

She was slightly confused as to how Biyomon had been able to leave without her noticing, but she didn't say anything about it seeing that it wasn't all that important.

"She told me you were crying a lot and needed someone to talk to. She also said it was a boy problem so I instantly ran over here to come talk to you," Mimi said.

"All the way from America? Mimi, you didn't have to…" she started to say, but Mimi put one finger up to her mouth in a "shhh-ing" fashion.

"Don't. It is my pleasure to help a girl friend out, especially with boy problems."

She inwardly sighed. It wasn't that she didn't appreciate Mimi for coming here to help her because she really did, but she and Mimi were always so… different from each other. Yeah, they were always friends and got along, but Mimi was too prissy. Mimi was the typical "little princess" who never broke a nail and was a huge drama queen. Mimi had even earned the title "Princess Mimi" in their first adventure to the Digital World. She, though, had always been different. She was not afraid to go outside and rough around, whether it was playing soccer or any other sport. She wasn't the typical girl, and she didn't know if Mimi was the right person to help her right now.

"So, tell me about this boy problem, and I want to hear everything!"

She looked first at Mimi, then to the door, then to her partner, and then to the door again. She closed her eyes and sighed as she realized there was no escape.

"Well, I don't even know where to begin," she stated, and it was true.

"How about you start with Tai? What's going on between you two?"

"Umm… well…" she started, but she really didn't feel comfortable admitting the next part; she hated even admitting it to herself.

"Are you two dating?" Mimi asked.

That was a difficult question. "Yeah, I guess you could call it that…"

"AND YOU NEVER THOUGHT TO TELL ME?!" Mimi burst out.

"Mimi, it's just..." she started, trying to think of some excuse but she had nothing.

"Just what? I'm not around twenty-four seven anymore and you thought you could exclude me just like everyone else?! Well, quite frankly, I'm tired of it!" Mimi exclaimed.

Mimi's reaction kind of caught her off guard as it was not the reaction she was expecting from the conversation. Usually if someone yelled at her she would fire right back, but she was already feeling down and Mimi's accusation was the cherry on top. Instead of firing back at Mimi, she said sadly, "I'm sorry Mimi. I guess I've just been a bad friend to everyone lately."

She put her hands to her face to cover up the tears flowing from her eyes and she felt a hand rest upon her shoulder. She looked to her left to see Mimi sitting next to her, her brown eyes fixed upon her.

"Sora, I'm sorry I yelled at you. You are a great friend, and I'm sure a great girlfriend as well…"

Sora laughed a little bit at that. "I slept with Tai, Mimi, and I wasn't ready for that. We weren't even officially dating yet; we had decided we'd start going out last night after it was all over…"

Surprisingly, Mimi didn't play drama queen and make a big deal out of what she had told her. Instead she said simply, "Then tell Tai you're not ready for that yet. I'm sure he will understand."

"But I led him on to think I was ready. If I tell him I'm not ready he may not want to be with me anymore."

"Sora, if Tai really loves you and wants to be with you, it won't matter. Is he going to be let down about it? Of course, but a relationship is a mutual thing. If you don't feel comfortable with where your relationship is going then talk to him about it. I'm sure he'll understand."

Sora smiled as she realized Mimi was right; this wasn't as big of a deal as she was making it out to be. She knew Tai would be disappointed, but she knew Tai ultimately would want her to be happy.

When there was a moment of silence, she decided to talk to Mimi about her other guy problem.

"And then there's Matt…"

At this Mimi looked shocked. "Please, Sora, don't tell me you slept with Matt too?!"

That made her laugh as she shook her head. "No, it's nothing like that. He just hates me."

"Hate you?" Mimi asked, confused, "But aren't you two really close friends, even though you guys have broken up?"

"That's what I thought…" she started as she then went into explaining everything about Matt. She told Mimi how Matt was struggling with TK rejecting him. She also told her how Matt had been acting strange around Tai, especially when they were all together. Mimi seemed to find some amusement to the whole thing.

"Well, it looks like there's a little fight going on between Tai and Matt."

"What do you mean Mimi?

"Isn't it obvious?" Mimi asked. When she didn't respond right away, Mimi continued, "They're fighting over you."

Suddenly things started to make sense. That would explain why Matt was so upset with Tai, it was because he was jealous. It also explained why Matt went off at her earlier today since he knew what she had done with Tai.

"I guess I never thought of that…"

Mimi nodded, and then she sighed. She looked at Mimi in concern to which Mimi responded, "I've been having some guy problems too."

Mimi then told her how she had been spending more and more time with that Michael from America. She and the others had already assumed that the two were dating, but Mimi was talking as if they were not dating. Mimi then told her how earlier that day Michael had asked her out and how she had then told him she needed time to think about it and ran away.

"Well, have you thought about it?" she asked.

Mimi nodded. "And…?" she inquired further.

"I don't know Sora. Michael is a very nice guy, and he's been there for me a lot. If it wasn't for he and Willis, I don't know what I would have done."

"But there's something holding you back, isn't there? Or maybe even someone?"

Mimi nodded. Sora's eyes widened a bit as she asked curiously, "Who is it Mimi?"

Mimi stayed silent for a little while before muttering, "I… Izzy."

Sora smiled a huge smile. It wasn't that she had anything against Michael, but she had always thought Izzy and Mimi would make a great couple. Yeah, they were completely different in so many ways, but there was something about them that seemed to just… work.

"Are you going to tell him?" she asked Mimi.

"Izzy? I don't know. I first have to tell Michael, and that's going to hurt him so much."

"But if he's not the right one then it shouldn't matter! Like you said, relationships are a mutual thing, and if you don't think you two should be together then just tell him."

"Yeah, I guess you're right Sora. Thanks," Mimi said smiling.

"Anything for a friend," she smiled back.

They then talked about all that was going on in the Digital World. She told Mimi everything they had discussed in their last meeting along with all the fights they had during the time. Mimi didn't seem thrilled by the news, but she did seem happy that she was being included with the group. It must be awful living so far away…

"I miss the times when we were younger and everything was so simple," Mimi said frowning, "Now it seems like we are bigger enemies than the actual threat."

"I agree, and that threat is going to be coming soon. We can't be fighting with ourselves; we need to be ready."

"Yeah, it's only going to make things more difficult in the long run."

Sora nodded her agreement. They continued talking for a while longer before Mimi decided it was time for her to leave. They were saying their goodbyes when Biyomon piped up for the first time.

"Sora?" her partner asked, "Can I go back to the Digital World with Mimi? I'm feeling a lot better and being back there will only help build up my strength."

She hesitated at first. She was not one in favor of sending the digimon back to the Digital World. What if they got attacked and there were more distress signals? She felt so guilty when she had found Biyomon hurt the first time. She didn't want to go through that again, but she was going to respect her partner's wishes. She loved Biyomon too much not to.

"That's fine Biyo, just be safe," she pleaded.

"I will Sora. Thank you!" her partner said happily as she reached out and gave her partner a hug.

When the embrace was over, Biyomon flew over to the computer next to Mimi.

"Thanks for all your help Mimi," she said happily.

"You're welcome and thank you too! We should do this more often, and I mean that sincerely!"

"Mhmm," she said in agreement.

"Ok, goodbye Sora."

"Bye."

"Digi-port open!"

And with a flash of light, her friend and her partner disappeared into the computer leaving her alone, but feeling much better than what she was feeling before.

"Willis, I just don't know what to do," he told his best friend.

And he seriously meant it. He had just asked Mimi out yesterday, and all she had said was 'I got to go,' and then she walked away. Had he asked her the wrong way? Did Mimi hate him? Was 'I got to go,' girl language for 'I hate you, you're a freak, don't ever talk to me again?' Oh no, he couldn't stand the thought of not being able to see or talk to Mimi ever again.

Willis didn't seem surprised when he had told him he had asked Mimi out yesterday, and Willis also didn't seem very surprised when he told him her reaction. He was hoping Willis would have some sort of answer that would fix everything, but Willis was not giving such kind of help.

"I think you just have to wait for her to come back around man," Willis told him.

"Wait? Wait?! Why do I have to wait so long for a simple yes or no answer? I've waited so long to ask Mimi out, and now that I have I can't wait just for her to answer!"

"Yes, but waiting is your only option," Willis told him, almost sounding a bit agitated. That was strange; Willis was always so carefree and never uptight. Now, though, Willis seemed like he was about to snap. He hadn't seen his best friend snap at anyone, especially him, but he was sure he didn't want to be there when he did. Despite this, though, he couldn't help but keep pushing the conversation.

"My only option? There are so many other things I could do!"

"Like what? Are you going to go over to her house right now and just profess your love to her? Are you going to tell her that you made a mistake and didn't mean to ask her out? Are you going to follow her everywhere until she finally gives you an answer? I know you well enough to know you're not going to do any of that. You just have to wait for her."

"I can't wait though! Love is driving me crazy. You wouldn't…." he stopped himself.

Willis instantly shot a glare at him. "I wouldn't what? Michael?"

"Never mind. Forget I said anything."

"You think I don't understand love? You think it is something that I have never felt before just because I don't have girls running after me non-stop? You think I don't know how crazy it drives you to have the woman you love not feel the same way about you? Well, I know exactly what it feels like, Michael."

And with that, he watched as his best friend got up and left his room. 'Dumb,' he thought to himself, 'why'd you have to be so dumb.'

He scolded himself as he muttered to himself, "I'm sorry Willis."

She practically was skipping as she made her way to Kari's. It had been seriously too long since they had their last girls night. Ice cream. Romance movies. Talk about boys and other girl drama. It was a teenage girls dream.

Running up the stairs, she found Kari's apartment and knocked on the door. Kari almost immediately answered, opening the door. She looked at her friend who was holding a half gallon of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream in her arms. Kari was smiling brightly at her.

"Are you ready for this?" Kari asked.

She nodded multiple times showing Kari the movies she had brought over. "You know it!"

They then made their way to Kari's room after saying hello to Mr. and Mrs. Kamiya and shut the door. Yolei put in her favorite movie out of the ones she brought over and then sat on the floor Kari sat next to her and then pulled out two spoons from her pocket. She offered one to her and she took it gratefully from her friend.

"Shall we?" she asked.

Kari smiled. "Of course," Kari answered, while taking the top of the ice cream out.

About thirty minutes later the ice cream was already halfway gone and they had gone off on at least five rants about how dumb boys were. But mostly they talked about boys in general. Now it was time to get down to the specifics and find out what kind of drama was really going on.

"So how are you and Davis, Kari?"

"Oh, we're fine," she said smilling.

"Kari, you've been complaining this whole time about how dumb boys are. Come on, there has to be something up with you and Davis."

"But there's not. We're getting along just like usual!"

She was confused. "Then who's the dumb boy?"

"TK!" Kari blurted out before eventually adding, "And Tai. And Matt too."

"Now hold on a second. Why is TK dumb?" As much as she agreed all boys were dumb, TK was one whom she didn't think necessarily fell right into the 'dumb boys' category.

"He's just so… confusing!"

"What do you mean Kari?"

"I mean, ever since he's been back he's just been so weird. Like how he pushes Matt away from him. And then, you saw him yesterday. He just ran off for no reason. All he was talking to me about was Matt when Davis joined us and he just ran away. And also, why is he dating Kiyomi? I mean, really, Kiyomi is nothing like TK. They are clearly not right for each other."

A light bulb popped on as Kari mentioned the last little bit. This was a daring question, but she had to ask it anyways. "Kari, do you have feelings for TK?"

Kari blushed at first but then shook her head violently. "Of course not Yolei. We're just friends!"

"Then why does he dating Kiyomi bother you so much?"

"They aren't right for each other!"

"Kari, I think they are perfect for each other. They're like the cutest couple in the whole school… besides you and Davis of course."

"But they have nothing alike!" Kari countered. "She's… she's… just not right for him!"

Yolei decided to drop it seeing that Kari was only getting frustrated. Besides, denying them or not, it was clear that Kari had feelings for TK. She kind of felt relieved by it all because, as much as she like Kari and Davis being in a relationship, it was they that weren't right for each other. But she decided not to mention any of that.

"And whom do you think is dumb Yolei?" Kari turned the tables to her.

"Um… honestly none come to mind right away."

"There has to be someone Yolei!"

"Well…. I do feel bad for Ken. Think about it. No one treats him like he's a part of the group. They all just ignore him and everything that he says. Plus he lives farthest away. I just feel bad for him."

"But do you think he's dumb?"

"For not asking me out, yeah! I mean, I try my best to show him I'm interested, but he doesn't seem to pick up anything. Seriously!"

"There you go Yolei, just let it all out," Kari said smiling.

Hours passed by as they kept conversing and watching movies. After some time she looked at her phone and saw that it was getting pretty late. They also had school tomorrow.

"Do you have to go?" Kari asked, seeing that she was looking at her phone.

"Yeah, I'll see you at school tomorrow! And thanks for tonight. It was a blast!"

They gave each other a hug on the floor before standing up. She gathered her movies while Kari put the spoons into the empty half gallon of ice cream. They walked out of her room and Yolei put on her shoes.

"Have a good night Yolei!" called out from her spot on the couch.

"You too . See you later Kari," she said as she walked out the door.

The cool night breeze hit her face and she had to say that it felt amazing. And she felt amazing too. She took a deep breath and smiled before walking back home.

Dang, he hadn't spent so much time by himself since… man, he couldn't even remember. It sure was different coming home from their meeting with no one to walk with. Usually he would be chasing after Sora, or walking back to his apartment with Matt. But right now he didn't have anyone with him, not even Agumon. Ok, that was partially his fault; heck, maybe all of it was his fault. Maybe he was the reason why Sora, his new girlfriend, didn't want to be with him right now. He knew he was the reason why Agumon was with him, and maybe he was even the reason why Matt was so upset with him.

No, Matt was being a douche. Yeah, he was still his best friend and all, but Matt had been acting really strange lately. He was sure TK wasn't helping with his random outbursts at Matt, which he had to admit was unusual for the typically calm blonde, but there seemed to be something else. He remembered the glares Matt had given him two days ago when they had received the distress calls and he had helped Sora up and maybe even flirt a little bit despite all that was going on at the time.

It was no secret that he had the hots for Sora ever since they defeated MaloMyotismon. He had known her for practically all of his life and they were really great friends. He had thought about asking her out when they were at one of Matt's concerts back when his band was a big thing, but that had ended badly. He was about to man up and ask Sora out while they were waiting backstage for Matt when Matt walked up from behind Sora and put his arm around her, giving her a peck on the cheek. That had hurt.

"So what were you going to ask me Tai?" Sora asked, a big smile on her face now that her boyfriend was with her.

Tai quickly answered, "No.. nothing Sora. Good job tonight Matt. I'll see you guys later."

And then they had dated up until a couple months ago or so. He and Matt had talked about it, and apparently Sora had cut it off saying that Matt was pushing for a serious relationship and she wasn't ready for that. So she dumped him. They still remained really close friends, and he even thought that Matt still loved Sora though Matt didn't say he did. 'We're just close friends Tai,' he heard Matt's voice run though his mind as he had asked his best friend the question multiple times receiving the same answer.

He scoffed. Just close friends? How come whenever he tried to go after Sora, Matt was quick to glare. And seriously, why was Matt so upset at him recently? Sure, they had a little rough time three years ago where they weren't really friends, but he had apologized to Matt for being a jerk and they had made up. But now they were fighting again, and he didn't like it.

Despite these problems, though, he wasn't quite ready to deal with them yet. Matt needed to grow up and apologize to him for being a dick. Sora… well, he should apologize for yelling at her, but other than that he didn't know why she was so distant from him. He figured he had better just let her have her space for now until she figures out what she's thinking.

That was why he was driving to Izzy's. First off, he needed to be someone other than himself. Yesterday he had spent the entire rest of the day after the meeting playing video games. He can't even remember if he ate anything other than potato chips during that time. Secondly, he needed to get his mind off of other people. The Digital World was really starting to heat up, and, being the leader, he needed to find out what exactly was going on.

With his racing thoughts, it didn't take long before he pulled into Izzy's apartment complex's parking garage. He climbed up some stairs and found himself in front of the genius's door.

"Knock knock Izzy! I'm here!" he yelled as he pounded on the door.

He heard Izzy's voice say something to which another voice, most likely Izzy's mother, answered. Footsteps approached and the door opened.

"Hello Tai!" said while pulling the door open.

"Hello Mrs. Izumi," he responded back as he walked inside and took his shoes off.

"Do you want any snacks? I can bring some in to Izzy's room for you?" she offered.

Tai smiled. As much as Izzy was annoyed by his mother always intruding upon his guests, he had to say that was a fine cook.

"Do you have any of your famous brownies?" he asked with a hopeful look.

"I sure do," she answered with a smile. He smiled back before walking into Izzy's room.

"Here's the brownies you guys asked for," he heard his mother say before entering the room.

He and Tai stopped their conversation as his mom dropped off the brownies with a big smile on her face.

"Thanks ," Tai said happily as he picked up a brownie and stuffed it in his mouth.

"Thanks mom," Izzy said as she left the room.

"These are so good," Tai mumbled as he had a mouthful of brownie pieces, "I don't know why you don't have her make these all the time."

"They are good," he agreed before taking one and eating it as well.

Once they were done with the brownies, they decided they'd get back to what they were talking about.

Izzy was really uncomfortable about the entire situation. None of it seemed to add up. By the sound of what TK and Willis told them, MarineDevimon was not that strong of a digimon, almost being taken down by two ultimates and one champion. But, this digimon could also be behind all of these rogue digimon attacks. Or, MarineDevimon could simply be another rogue digimon and have no connection with the other attacks whatsoever.

"I say we go looking for this new evil. I have a bad feeling it's only getting stronger the longer we wait to take action," Tai said.

Izzy shook his head. "You don't know that Tai, and even if it was true, we have no idea what we would be up against. Or where to find this digimon."

"But we can't do nothing Izzy. If these rogue digimon attacks become more and more frequent then we may not be able to fight this other digimon."

"I know that Tai. I just think we need to thoroughly evaluate the situation at hand and come up with most optimal approach."

"How much more evaluating do we need to do? There have been three rogue digimon attacks plus the encounter with MarineDevimon in the past two days! It's only going to be so long before another…"

Just as Tai was talking, there was a loud beeping noise. Tai looked at his pocket, an expression of worry clear across his face, as he pulled out his digivice. Tai's face then became one of sheer determination and anger.

"Like I told you Izzy. Whoever attacked Agumon is going to pay."

Izzy hurriedly opened up his yellow laptop. Tai pointed his digivice to the laptop and the Digi-portal opened up, but Izzy burst out, "Wait! Tai, don't think it wise to contact the others first?"

"I don't have that kind of time Izzy. Agumon I'm coming for you buddy. Digi-port open!"

"Tai!" Izzy tried once more, but it was too late. Tai was already enveloped in white light and drawn into the computer. 'Goggle-heads,' Izzy shook his head before drawing his own digivice and pointing it at the computer. He underwent the strange sensation of being digitalized and before he knew it he hit the ground now in the Digital World.

Before he even opened his eyes, he knew he was on a beach somewhere. The smell of saltwater, the washing of the waves on the shore, and then the sand under his body gave it all away. He opened his eyes and got up to his feet only to open his mouth in shock.

In front of him was Tai knelt down next to Agumon, but in a big circle around both of them were a bunch of digimon smiling evilly at them.

"Izzy!" he heard an unmistakingly familiar voice call out. He turned to see Tentomon flying at him only to be smacked to the ground by a huge, marine digimon's tentacle.

"Tentomon!" he yelled as he ran for his partner. He dropped to his knees next to his partner just as the digimon who had assaulted his partner said, "Tie these two up now while I go looking for some other digidestineds."

"Yes MarineDevimon," the other digimon responded before drawing in closer.

This was not good.

He felt like such a douche. All he could think about was how much of a jerk he had been to Sora and Tai yesterday. Ok, was he happy that the two of them slept together? Of course not. In fact, it really pissed him off. How could Sora do that so soon after breaking up with him? And how could Tai be so ignorant and stupid. How could he have sex with his best friend's girlfriend in their own apartment without even talking to him about it first? Ok, maybe he was a little bit jealous of Tai, but mostly he was mad at him.

Then again, he had told Tai that he had no more feelings for Sora. And it wasn't like Sora was restricted from dating anybody else just because they had broken up. His two best friends were happy with each other, so he should be happy for them, not being mad at them.

He sighed. Apologizing wasn't really his thing, but he had to after what he had done. He got his phone and was about to text Sora when he received a text message… from Sora.

"Hey, do you know where Tai is?" the message read.

"Isn't he in the apartment?" he typed back. He actually was on his way there right now to apologize to Tai, and to get away from his father's apartment. TK was still mad at him for God knows what reason, but at least his father had apologized to him for going off the other night. It actually kind of made him happy when his father took some of his anger out on TK. Seriously, he only wanted to make sure TK was ok, and if he had to go to extreme measures to ensure his brother's safety he would.

He then checked his phone again and opened another message from Sora.

"Don't know. Meet you there?" he read.

He typed back an "Ok," as he kept walking to the apartment.

He was already more than halfway there so it didn't take him long before he had reached his destination. Pulling out his key from his pocket, he opened the door only to notice that all the lights were turned off and the apartment was completely silent. Unless Tai was still sleeping, and seing that it was past six he highly doubted that, then Tai was not here.

He unlocked the door behind him so Sora could get in and turned on the lights. He walked to his room and set his bag down on his bed before walking back out to the kitchen. Something on the kitchen table caught his eye, though, and he looked to see that it was a note.

"Off to Izzy's, be back soon," it said.

Figures. He set the note back down on the table when he heard the door open. Looking up, he watched Sora enter the apartment.

"Hi Sora," he said smiling.

Sora smiled weakly back at him, "Hi. Is Tai here?"

He shook his head before standing up and giving her the note. He gave her a second to read it before saying, "Izzy's."

"I see. Well, I'm going to head over there…"

"Let me come with you."

Sora didn't seem too keen on this, but she didn't deny it so Matt took that as a he could come. They then silently locked the apartment back up before leaving and heading to Izzy's.

At first they remained silent before Matt decided to spark up some conversation.

"Where's Biyomon?" he asked.

"Digital World," Sora responded acutely.

Matt tilted his head, "Why's that?"

"It was her choice. Listen. Matt…"

"No, you listen Sora," he said, cutting her off. Now was his time to apologize. "Look, I'm sorry for going off at you yesterday. It was completely unacceptable and I apologize."

Sora smiled before saying, "Thank you Matt."

"Now, what is it you wanted to tell me?" he asked.

Sora looked uneasy, but then said, "Oh look. We're here."

He looked away from her and saw that they were indeed at Izzy's apartment. They climbed up the stairs and knocked on the door. answered with a smile saying, "They're in Izzy's room. Would you two like some brownies?"

"No thank you ," they responded I unison before making their way to Izzy's room. They opened the door only to find the room completely empty. A plate which had to have had brownies on it was sitting down on Izzy's desk, and next to it was Izzy's yellow laptop opened with a Digi-port window up.

"Where could they have gone?" Sora asked him.

He walked over to the laptop and said, "I think I have a good guess."

She looked over at the laptop as well and nodded. "Should we go after them?"

"Might as well," he answered before pulling out his digivice and pointing it at the laptop.

"Digi-port open!"

Using the trick he had learned fromteh multiple trips he had made back and forth from the Digital World, he landed on his feet and surveyed his surroundings. He was on a beach, that was obvious. The beach stretched on for miles and all that could be seen as he looked out on the horizon was blue water. He turned around to se a cliff that led up to a wooded area up on top. There was no sign of Tai or Izzy, though.

"Matt!"

"Sora!"

He turned in the direction of the voices to see Gabumon and Biyomon nearing them. He smiled as he gave his partner a hug and Sora did the same. Even though it was only a day, it seemed like a long time since he had seen his partner and he had really missed him a lot in that day.

After greeting their partners, Sora looked around and said, "I don't see Tai or Izzy anywhere."

"Me either. Maybe they went up that cliff?"

"And lookie who we have here!"

He instantly turned around to see four blue marine creatures with sharp claws, what looked like a scuba tank on their backs, and holding a sharp spear in one of their claws. He had seen these digimon before; they were Divermon and they were not friendly.

He pulled out his digivice and was about ready to fight these digimon when he felt something wrap around him and then squeeze him tight. He along with Sora were pulled off their feet and flew up into the air as they cried out in pain.

He looked behind him and saw what looked like a Seadramon but with a red outer coating, a white belly, and a gray, armored mask with a horn protruding out from it.

"Matt!" "Sora!" he heard their partners call out, but then he heard them shout out in pain as the Divermon attacked them from behind.

"Great job WaruSeadramon. Now let's go tie these guys up with the others," the Divermon said.

"Gladly," the sea serpent digimon responded.

Crap, this was not turning out the way he had thought it was going to.